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Posted on January 7, 2018 by

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OPEN HOUSE! Stop in to say hello/goodbye if you're in the Salem area today. We'll be here from noon until 3pm, trying to both find a tenant and say goodbye to friends. #multitasking #wannabuyahouse #forrent #houseforrent #moving #tellafriend Can you believe we've been off the Appalachian Trail for a whole month?! Many of you have asked us what's next. (We really appreciated the person who asked what's now; you understood it would be reckless to charge ahead with major life moves before readjusting to expectations like only going to the bathroom in bathrooms.) After 7 months of spending money and beating on our bodies, it's time for an income and some health insurance. This lovely photo is from our soon-to-be new stomping grounds: John Bryan State Park in Yellow Springs, OH. (You can't move somewhere without first checking out the quality of their hiking trails, right?) Yellow Springs is home to Antioch College where Lindsey will be working in Student Life. What about Tenderfoot, you ask? Antioch's mission is well-aligned with Tenderfoot's, and we already have plans to partner on a few things. Independently, we're turning our attention to securing our finances, community partnerships, and a permanent home for our operations. We called 2018 the Year of the Tenderfoot (accurate in its literal sense), and we're calling 2019 the Year of Securing our Footing (though some tenderness has lingered into the new year). We can't accomplish any of the above alone, so if you're interested in volunteering, there are lots of meaningful ways for you to be involved. Reach out! Our moving date is January 14, so if you're in NE Ohio and want to say hello/goodbye, let us know. If you're in SW Ohio, maybe we'll see you soon. We'll be doing events in both areas this spring, so stay tuned! #securingourfooting #nextadventure #butwelikedoutdoorbathrooms #philanthropistswanted #nonprofit #501c3 #startup #tenderfootadventures We crossed hundreds of bridges as we hiked the full length of the Appalachian Trail, but this was the very last one. A fellow thru-hiker snapped this picture, catching us in the act of one of our trail traditions: kissing on every bridge. This habit was inspired by @mountunion, the college where we met as students and later reunited as colleagues. Mount Union has two lakes, and campus lore says that if you kiss someone on the bridge that crosses them, you'll marry that person. We're already married, but we chose to take this tradition to the trail for a few reasons: •Stopping at every bridge meant we took a moment to truly notice streams, rivers, and waterfalls. Mountain views were beautiful, but fairly plentiful. Water views were less common and oh-so rejuvenating. After collecting and filtering every drop we consumed for 7 months, we feel deep awe and respect for water. •Kissing on every bridge made it hard to get too far away from each other. The trail isn't generally wide enough to walk side-by-side, and it's easy to get separated over time as we each navigated climbs and obstacles at our own pace. So, waiting for each other at bridges was a safety measure that ensured we had landmarks to report to rescue personnel as last points of contact in the event that one of us went missing. (We also waited for each other at road crossings.) •Perhaps most importantly, Kissing Bridges required that we had to be happy enough with each other to pucker up whenever we came upon a bridge. Sometimes this meant standing on the bridge for a while to hash through things. Maybe we wouldn't go as far as we wanted that day, but we didn't let small annoyances fester, and we believe this practice helped us make it the full 2,190 miles feeling like a team. It took us until the very last day of our 210 days to get a picture, but we're so very happy to have captured such a core element of our hike. #teachingsofthetrail #safetyfirst #honeymoon #kissmeyoufool #tenderfootadventures #appalachiantrail #AT2018 Alas, we share the final hours of our Appalachian Trail adventure. We are thankful, beyond words, to those we have met, to those who have supported us from off trail, and to our tribe. "Not till we are lost, in other words not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves, and realize where we are and the infinite extent of our relations." -H.D.Thoreau #goinghome #thruhikers #appalachiantrail #hikeathon #honeymoon #whiteblazesonly #501c3
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